Museum's Global Dream
- Source: Global Times
- [19:27 March 01 2011]
- Comments
A glimpse of the newly renovated National Museum of China. Photo: CFP
By Wu Ziru
With the completion of a huge renovation project that cost nearly 2.5 billion yuan ($380 million) and took about four years, the National Museum of China (NMC), now acclaimed as the world's largest museum, was reopened yesterday to the public.
Located on the east side of Tian'anmen Square, the new museum is constructed on the foundations of two previous museums, the Museum of Chinese History and the Museum of the Chinese Revolution. It has now nearly tripled in size, from 65,000 to almost 200,000 square meters.
As the most prestigious museum in China, the NMC aims to offer the best place for audiences to enjoy various arts from both China and the world, according to L Zhangshen, director of the NMC.
Art feast offered
With a total collection of more than 1.05 million pieces, L said that the museum would try effortlessly to offer audiences a panorama of art that ranges from ancient to contemporary Chinese and world art.
After years of preparation, it now holds two permanent displays, with one called "Ancient China," divided into eight sections and covering 10 exhibition halls, showing about 3,000 pieces of rare articles from ancient China to Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
The other permanent exhibition is the large-scale "Road to Revival" which enjoyed a trial run in 2009 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and received wide plaudits from gallery-goers.
With numerous works including sculpture, oil painting and Chinese painting on display, the permanent exhibition covers nine exhibition halls and displays the struggles and efforts Chinese people went through after the first Opium War in 1840.
Aside from these two gigantic permanent shows, there are also a series of feature exhibitions on show, including Chinese ancient bronze, Buddhist art, porcelain and Chinese paintings, and calligraphy, together offering audiences a near-complete range of Sino art genres.
According to L , international cooperation will be another highlight at the museum, with the first step a joint exhibition with three major German museums, the Berlin National Museum, the Dresden National Art Collection Museum and the Bavarian State Picture Galleries.
The exhibition, themed "Illuminative Arts," will soon be open in April. Scheduled to last 12 months, the exhibition will embody large number of famous arts works from Germany.
"International cooperation will be an important part of our work," L said. "We hope to provide audiences in China a very good chance to enjoy great world art."
